Father's Day
by The Needless Lobsters
Summary: Father's Day has never been the greatest of days for Percy Jackson. Since he's never really had a dad present, there's not really much for him to do on this day. But what happens when he gets a little surprise visit from his own dad?


**Hey, guys! So, it's Father's Day, and I thought I'd write a little something to celebrate! To all the wonderful dads out there, and to all those father figures too! We're all really grateful for everything you do for us!**

 **So, read on!**

* * *

Father's Day.

Ever since he was a child, it had been the same ordeal for Percy Jackson. He'd never had a dad – or at least, one that was present – until he was twelve, and then hadn't really had the chance to wish his dad a "Happy Father's Day" at all unless he was praying to him, and _funnily enough_ , that wasn't the same as having an actual dad around to say it to.

When his mother had got married to Paul, he supposed it was nice to have someone to say it to. He had someone to get a card, someone to help his mother make breakfast for ( _not_ blue, unfortunately), someone to hang out with and just have a chat with and even _make_ gifts for (with Annabeth's help, of course). It was nice to have some sort of dad around.

That lasted about two years before his half-sister was born. Of course, Paul was still his step-dad (and would be as long as he and Sally were married), but it wasn't the same when he had a little sister around that actually celebrated the day with Paul, and his parents seemed to focus more on her celebrating the day with Paul and whatever projects and pictures she brought back from school for him.

So Percy decided to throw himself into literally everything _but_ Father's Day on the day. Every year, whilst every other guy in his classes was hanging out with their parents or step-parents to celebrate having a dad or father figure that cared, he threw himself into his work. He usually went to the labs to get some extra credit work done, which his teachers didn't even question (he was coming to the conclusion that his teachers actually _liked_ it), whilst Annabeth left New Rome to visit her dad for the day and spend some time with him. He was pretty lonely during the day, sure, but he preferred that to having to answer difficult questions like where his dad was, even if he was surrounded by demigods and legacies all the time.

It was one such Father's Day (of the year he'd actually managed to _graduate_ and thus had no work to do) where Percy found himself just laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

His friends from college had told him all about it the day before, and what they would be able to do with their families for the day. Percy had absolutely nothing to do. At all. And he knew for a fact that Annabeth would be going to see her father.

"Perce?"

The male looked over to see his wife standing at the door, a slight smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.

"What?" he mumbled, sounding moody – like some sort of angsty teen. He didn't miss the subtle roll of Annabeth's eyes as she answered.

"I'm heading up to San Fran to see my dad," she told him, expecting some sort of reply.

Percy just blinked at her, and she sighed.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with me this year, since you haven't got any work to do and we're not applying for work until September."

Percy's response was rolling over to face away from her, and she sighed, the door shutting to signify that she'd left. The dark haired male just continued to lie in bed for a few minutes, staring at the blue wall of the bedroom he and Annabeth shared, before finally deciding to pull himself out of bed and at least _attempt_ to act normally that day. Maybe find something to do, like read or… _read_ or…

Oh gods, he wanted to _read_ now…

"Married one year and she's already rubbing off on me," he muttered as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, and rubbing his face tiredly. He'd managed to get any sleep the night before, and been restless practically all night because of… _nightmares_. Nearly ten years, and they still hadn't gone.

He pulled himself to his feet and stumbled out to the bathroom, deciding to freshen up and get ready for the boring day that lay ahead for him.

* * *

He was in the kitchen when there was a knock at the door, reading the New Rome paper and drinking a mug of coffee to try and keep himself awake so that he could sleep that night. He'd actually just managed to get to the legion section (which they actually had instead of a massive sports section) when he was forced to put his mug down, pull on a t-shirt and make his way to the apartment door.

Of course, being tired he hadn't realised that he _should_ have been suspicious, since he hadn't buzzed anyone up.

He wasn't tired enough to glare slightly at who was at the door.

Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian t-shirt…? _Poseidon_.

"What are you doing here?"

Poseidon's eyebrows just rose. "What? No "Hello" or, even more importantly, "Happy Father's Day"?" he asked Percy.

"No, that would be for fathers who are actually _around_ enough to deserve it," Percy replied snarkily.

"Oh, come on, even Zeus gets a little 'Happy Father's Day' prayer from Jason…"

"That's because Jason's overly polite, respectful, and grew up Roman."

"…Fair point."

Percy just sighed, leaning on the door frame. "You still haven't answered my question, you know," he pointed out as he folded his arms.

Poseidon sighed, in that moment looking more like his age (which was _ancient_ ) than he ever had, before forcing a smile onto his face. "Are you not going to let me in?"

Percy let out another sigh, this one sounding more like a groan, before moving aside and letting the god into his apartment, shutting the door behind him and then walking past him into the kitchen. He wasn't surprised when his father followed, and headed over to the coffee machine, picking up his mug on his way over. After all, he was going to need a top up if Poseidon was about. "Want any coffee?"

"I don't need to drink coffee."

"I know; I was trying to be a nice host."

The slight chuckle that Poseidon let out caused Percy to look over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, before going back to adding more coffee to his mug. The young man, once he'd added more coffee to his mug, moved to sit back at the kitchen table, opposite his father. "So… is there any reason why you're here?" he asked.

"It's Father's Day, isn't it?"

"Don't you have any other kids to spend it with?" Percy whined, before bringing his mug up to his lips to take a sip of the coffee.

Poseidon just watched him with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you want me here to spend it with you?" he asked.

"Well, you're barely around to spend it with me as it is – why start now?"

"I thought you'd like to start getting used to them."

Percy frowned, his mug halfway to his lips to take another sip. "What?"

Poseidon seemed to consider his next words carefully, before shaking his head a little and smiling at Percy softly. "You will know when the time comes."

Percy just frowned at him for a few moments, before shrugging a little and going back to drinking his coffee. Eventually, his put his mug down on the table, on top of his newspaper – he probably wasn't going to get the time to read that _anyway_ , since his dad was around. "How's the Olympian council?"

Poseidon chuckled a little. "Oh, same old, same old…"

"So Zeus is moody as always?"

"It's been millennia, Percy. He doesn't change."

"Okay, I'll give you that."

The two males laughed, and as the laughter died down, Percy fingered the rim of his mug. "Family's family, right?"

Poseidon nodded, sighing. "Yes, of course." The god sighed. "I would suggest that we go for a walk, considering it is a beautiful day, but…"

"But this is New Rome, and gods don't just pop up left, right and centre," Percy supplied with a nod. "I know. And they're not all that fond of you either."

"My temple is horrific."

"Jason improved it a little."

"Oh, he did?"

"Yeah, he made it a little bigger, and people actually pray in it now."

Poseidon smiled. "Ah, that's nice. How is he, by the way?" he asked, leaning forward a little to lean his elbows on the table.

Percy scoffed. "Oh please – you could probably zap right to him."

"Aren't you trying to keep a conversation with me? Answer the question."

"Right, right." Percy smirked a little. "He's pretty okay. Or, at least, he was he last time I saw him. He's tired, yeah, but he's coping with the transition from constantly working to college life pretty well."

Poseidon nodded. "He's doing Law, isn't he?"

"Yeah, and he's pretty good at it."

At that's how their conversation for the rest of the day, or at least until the afternoon. Poseidon asked questions about what was going on in Percy's life, and Percy answered before asking questions about how life was going up on Olympus and in the palace with Triton and Amphitrite. At around lunch time, Percy got up to make himself a sandwich (because he actually found that he was pretty hungry after doing nothing but sitting around and talking to his father for the whole morning), and they soon returned to random conversation about what was going on in their lives.

Soon enough, it was getting later in the afternoon, and Percy was yawning, his eyelids beginning to get heavier. Poseidon seemed to take this as his cue to stand.

"I can see that you didn't get much sleep last night," the god pointed out, one side of his lips quirking up in a half-smile. "I should leave."

"Already?" Percy mumbled, rubbing his cheeks and slapping them in an attempt to keep himself awake, but as soon as he felt a hand on his head, he began to feel drowsy again. His arms folded up on the table in front of him, and his head fell down into his arms. He felt his hair being ruffled as his eyes finally closed, and the last thing that he heard before falling asleep was, "Rest well, Percy."

* * *

When Percy next awoke, it was to someone running their hands through her hair – these hands were soft, definitely, and nothing like what he remembered his father's hands to be. One eye cracked open slowly, and it roamed around before landing on some blonde curls.

Ah, Annabeth was home.

He slowly lifted his head, blinking heavily to get rid of any sleep that was in his eyes and bringing up a hand to wipe the drool from his chin (yeah, he still did that). The chuckle from Annabeth earned her a playful scowl.

"So I'm guessing you didn't have a very productive day?" she asked, hinting to the fact that she'd found him asleep at the dining table, with a half-filled mug with cold coffee and a dirty plate, as well as the morning's paper.

Percy thought about how to answer that. "Well… it was kind of productive?"

"Oh? How so?"

"My dad came over."

Her eyebrows rose. "A Greek god in New Rome?"

Percy scoffed. "Well, I'm not exactly a son of Neptune, am I?"

"That's true."

"How was your day?"

"Eh, same old, same old." She smiled at him. "My dad says 'Hi', and so do Bobby and Matthew."

Percy just nodded at that, smiling a little. He hadn't seen the in-laws in a while, due to studies, so it was nice to know that they were doing considerably well. "Great."

"Oh, and I got you something."

That got Percy puzzled. Why on earth did Annabeth need to get him anything? It wasn't his birthday yet, as far as he knew there were no big public holidays that required presents coming up soon…

He was even more puzzled when an envelope landed in front of him, and he was only given a kiss on the cheek before she retreated to the bedroom.

He sighed, thinking deeply about what could be in there, before finally just grabbing the car and ripping it open.

He was surprised when a card fell out of the envelope and landed on the table in front of him, and he picked it up, flipping it so that he could read what was on the front of it.

 _Happy Father's Day._

Okay, what?

He opened the card, his eyes scanning over the message inside before going wide as the card fluttered out of his hands. What Poseidon had said earlier came to mind, and finally it made sense.

" _Well, you're barely around to spend it with me as it is – why start now?"_

" _I thought you'd like to start getting used to them."_

Oh gods he was… he was gonna be…

A huge grin spread over his face, before he pushed himself out of his chair and raced to the bedroom, where he hoped Annabeth was.

Hey, if this was going to be his last Father's Day alone with just him and Annabeth, he might as well make the most of it, right?

* * *

 **So, what do you guys think of it? Please review!**


End file.
